Management raised the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation forecast for the full year ended June 2011 to $19.5 million, which would be an increase of 13 per cent on the previous corresponding period. Pretax profit is expected to rise 20 per cent to $17 million.

Hansen chief financial officer
Grant Lister
said a large number of staff overseas provided “a natural hedge" against the strong Australian dollar. The company employs about 270 people but about 100 jobs are located in New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Mr Lister said the company had also improved the efficiency of its workforce through the introduction of new development tools.

“As a software company invests in better technology within its own business, it improves the efficiency of developing software," he said.

EL & C Baillieu Stockbroking ­analyst Simon Dumaresq has a “buy" rating on the stock. He increased his full-year net profit forecast for Hansen from $11.7 million to $12.9 million on news of the company’s upgraded forecast.

“They’ve got 40 per cent of their earnings overseas, so faced a bit of a headwind with the high Australian dollar," Mr Dumaresq said. “But they’ve managed their costs really well in terms of shifting their cost base to where the revenues are."

Hansen bought US software developer NirvanaSoft for less than $3 million late last year. This followed the $10 million purchase of Peace Software in 2008.